It doesn't have to be a major production or take a huge time commitment to help someone create a biography or a simple display about their life story and experiences. It doesn't have to be expensive either.

I like to suggest that family members create a "Storyboard" while working side-by-side with their older loved one that describes a least a few key phases of life...showing pictures of them at different ages through the years. It is really eye-opening for younger family members to actually realize that grandma was once a little girl! Just some basic biography questions asked can provide wonderful material to put on a board like this along with just 4-5 pictures.

Another idea that takes more time but results in a lot more information is completing a Life Story Journal or another type of question/answer memory book. This is excellent for priming the pump of people's memories and helping them write an autobiography without delay. It doesn't have to have 400 questions for it to be effective--the key is asking the RIGHT kinds of questions to bring out what family members would truly want to read, for all time, about this amazing person.

Using technology is a great way to involve the young people in the family in a biography project. For example, online templates such as LifeBio.com provide the questions on the web so the younger members of a family could collaborate to gather the stories of parents or grandaprents. Use a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC to write life stories and to share the biography with everyone. Just access even 20 questions and answer one everyday and watch the autobiography unfold.  What a great way to involve the tech-savvy grandchildren....it will really help forge a more meaningful relationship between young and old.